WOMEN MATTER
The Why and How of Gender Diversity in Financial Services
Published by WFW PUBLISHING
The Authors
Dr.DARALeE S BARBERA
EdD CFP® CMFC® CLF® CHFC®
Business Coach - Professor - Consultant-
International Speaker
Dr. Barbera has over three decades of experience in the financial services profession and is passionate about the importance of financial planning and the critical role of leadership.
Dr. Barbera has an EdD in Leadership and Organizational Change from the University of Southern California, a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics (summa cum laude), and a Master of Arts in Secondary Education from California State University, Long Beach.
Daralee recently served as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Executive Vice President of Business Development for GAMA International; GAMA provides leadership development solutions globally for financial services leadership.
Daralee started her career as a financial advisor at Waddell and Reed. Recently taking early retirement from Waddell and Reed, she was a Managing Principal with offices throughout Southern and Central California. Daralee received numerous awards, which included Platinum Member of Chairman’s Cabinet (seven times), Leadership Council (four times), Leadership Council Chair, Waddell & Reed’s prestigious and exclusive 7 C’s Award, and the unique Crystal Plate Award. Her division received a record 35 Gold, Silver, and Bronze level Awards based on sales production. She qualified for Circle of Champions 28 times, Crest 16 times, and received the GAMA Diamond International Management Award for Financial Planning.
Daralee has co-authored two books: Women Matter – The Why and How of Gender Diversity in Financial Services and What You Can Do…When You Can’t – 21 Days to Personal Success. Both titles are available on Amazon.com. Her doctoral dissertation, Financial Literacy for Women and the Role of Financial Education: An Exploratory Study of Promising Practices, is available at USC Digital Library and ProQuest.
Daralee was awarded the “2013-2014 Woman of the Year” for WIFS (Women in Insurance and Financial Services). In 2013, Daralee was named by Life Health Pro as one of the “20 Women in Insurance You Need to Know.”
As well as having served on The American College’s Board of Trustees, she is on the advisory board for The Northwestern Mutual Granum Center for Financial Security. She served as 2014-2015 President of the GAMA International Board of Directors and is Chairman Emeritus of the Orange County California Chapter of the FPA (Financial Planning Association), which is formerly the IAFP (International Association of Financial Planning). She is also a member of WIFS (Women in Insurance and Financial Services), NAIFA (National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors), and PBCA (Professional Business Coaches Alliance). Among other prior professional associations are Women in Film (executive member), Filmmaker’s Alliance, and FPA. Daralee is a member of GAMA International’s Speakers Bureau and speaks frequently to both domestic and international audiences.
Daralee has been featured in the GAMA International Journal, GAMA’s “Best Ideas” series, National Underwriter, Life Health Pro, Advisor Today, The Wall Street Journal, Business Wire, Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, The Wealth Channel, World News, International Business Times, Orange County Register, The Buffalo News, California Broker, Financial Planning, Investment News, Insurance News Net Magazine, and KPPC and KNX Radio in Los Angeles.
Prior to a career in financial services, Daralee was a high school and community college teacher. During that time, she co-chaired the Math department at Dana Hills High School in Dana Point, CA and taught at Fullerton College in Fullerton, CA. During her tenure as an educator she was named Teacher of the Year by Capistrano Unified School District in Orange County, CA.
Daralee, a Los Angeles native, resides in Manhattan Beach, California. She can be contacted at daraleebarbera@me.com.
Thomasina E. Skipper,
M.B.A. ChFC CLU CLF
Business Growth Specialist - Atlanta, Georgia
International Speaker
Thomasina Skipper began her career with Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company in Cleveland, Ohio, as a Personal Lines Underwriter. In 1981, she left Fireman’s Fund to become the Vice President and General Manager of Citizen Insurance Agency, an independent insurance agency. That role led her to establish one of the first female-owned, independent insurance agencies in Tennessee.
In 1986, Thomasina joined State Farm Insurance Companies. In 1992, she was transferred and promoted to Atlanta, Georgia, as an agency manager. In 1995, Thomasina became the Agency Field Executive for the Metro West Agency Field Office in Atlanta, and she later transferred to Omaha, Nebraska. Thomasina retired from State Farm in 2013.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science, with a minor in economics, from Syracuse University. In 2001, she earned her M.B.A. degree from Kennesaw State University in Georgia with honors.
Thomasina was a main-platform speaker at LAMP 2010, and she has made presentations to the sales-management staff at various companies in the industry. She is a member of the GAMA Speakers’ Bureau and a visiting lecturer for The American College. She is a past member of the Board of Directors of GAMA International and of the GAMA Foundation, and she served as chairperson of the GAMA Women in Leadership Task Force. In 2008, Thomasina received the GAMA First in Class Award in Leadership, and in 2013, she was GAMA’s Cy Pick Awardee. For twenty-two years, she qualified for State Farm’s Ambassador Travel Program, and she was the company’s 2010 Master Multiline Award Winner.
Thomasina and her husband, Benjamin Skipper, have four children and five grandchildren.
Linda L. Witham
CFP ChFC FIC
Owner, LLW Leadership Consulting, LLC
Ventura, California
International Speaker
Linda Witham spent twenty-eight years with Thrivent Financial. As a Managing Partner, she grew new middle-level leaders to achieve the overall growth of the Southwest region. Through the hiring and training of a diverse group of representatives, she led ten middle-level leaders to grow their zones.
She launched and led many successful marketing and change-management initiatives for Thrivent. From 1998 to 2011, the Southwest region was the top sales region nationally within Thrivent.
Linda made history in 2009 when she became the first female to become the president of GAMA International, an association that has served field leaders in the insurance and financial services industry for more than fifty years. She has chaired and served on numerous GAMA committees. Since 2011, she has served on the GAMA Women’s Advisory Task Force. She was a main-platform speaker at LAMP in 1995 and 2010 and has been a motivational speaker at many additional industry meetings and conferences.
She received the GAMA Master Agency Award every year from 1998 to 2011. In 2010, she was named the Women in Insurance & Financial Services (WIFS) Woman of the Year, and she received the Soaring Eagle Award from Kinder Brothers International.
In addition to her industry designations, Linda holds a BS degree in education from Concordia College in Seward, Nebraska, where she graduated summa cum laude.
Linda and her husband, David, reside in Ventura, California.
THE Synopsis
Women Matter can revolutionize your firm or practice in any business, your sales team should mirror your marketplace. That means half of your workforce should be female. But in the financial services industry, only 25.7 percent of financial advisors are women, despite the fact that 70 percent of women seeking advisors say they would prefer to work with a woman. Most firms and agencies are missing significant opportunities to serve female clients and increase revenue. In Women Matter, three women who rose to the top of the insurance and financial services industry share their insight about the why and the how of gender diversity: why gender diversity is critical to the bottom line, why the industry is lagging behind, and how field leaders can recruit and support qualified women. The authors share practical strategies for making gender diversity a part of your culture, making everyday language inclusive, and finding women with the potential to excel as financial advisors, then supporting them once they are on board and developing them for management positions. The authors describe potential “potholes” to avoid in your journey toward your vision of gender diversity based on their real-world, hands-on experience, along with easy-to-implement strategies for overcoming them. Women Matter also includes the keen insights of additional female industry leaders the authors interviewed.
The Chapters
Chapter 1: The Research and Our Purpose Give Us the “Why”
Chapter 2: Envision It, Commit to It, Make It Happen.
Chapter 3: Potholes in the Agency’s Road to Gender Diversity—And Strategies for Overcoming Them.
Chapter 4: Always Start with Culture: What to Keep, What to Change.
Chapter 5: What Did I Say? What Did You Hear?
Chapter 6: Recruiting Successful Women.
Chapter 7: Selecting Successful Women.
Chapter 8: Supporting Successful Women.
Chapter 9: Promoting Successful Women to Leadership.
Chapter 10: Women Growing Women.
Chapter 11: A Vision for Our Industry that Changes the World.
Chapter 12: The Importance of Support from the Top Leaders.
TESTIMONIALS
Coming Soon
